Observers
Blood-stained leaves.
Shreds of a dark cloth, dangling from the broken twigs the man passed.
Evidence of a past fight.
Iruka's throat had started swelling hours ago, when he had first noticed that one of his students had gone missing.
It had all started out as a little field trip, all academy teachers had seized the opportunity to enjoy the perfect weather and taken their students out of the stuffy classrooms to make their way out of the village's gate and into the nearby forest.
There had been barely any protest at all, even the usually reserved children had beamed at their instructors in silent joy, and Iruka had been absolutely sure that this would become one of those days that he loved to remember when winter came and the sun set at outrageous times.
Oh, how wrong he had been.
„Iruka", a quiet voice urged, and it didn't take Iruka much to recognize the person that had started accompanying his awkward sprint.
He slowed down, quickly crouching behind a rotten stub that hid him well from possible observers.
„What is it, Izumo?", he asked, his heart throbbing heavily against his ribcage.
The other carefully ducked beside him, his head now blocking Iruka's forward view.
His expression was serious.
Anxious.
„What if...", the dark-haired man slowly started, and Iruka's stomach finally went numb. If there was anything he had ever feared, anything he had ever been afraid of, it was exactly this scenario: A child, lost in the woods. Undeniable traces that indicated a severe fight.
He was the one who had been in charge of young Akimichi Choji.
He was the one who would be blamed if the boy had been hurt.
On their way throughout the thicket they had passed way too many blood-steamed trees and bushes to have any hope left.
Iruka was still not sure when exactly the boy had gone missing, but one thing that had, at first, seemed a mystery, was now bitter certainty: Not only Choji's whereabouts were still unknown. Iruka's fellow academy instructor and childhood friend, Mizuki, was also missing.
Iruka's head shook in dismissive desperation.
„No", he spat out, his fingers clenching a dead branch that protruded into his sight, „I refuse to believe that. We have to find the boy. We have to find both of them. Hope is not lost yet."
Those were empty words, Iruka knew it.
He knew it all too well.
Yet, he refused to vocalize his apprehensions.
There had been rumors spreading, evidence for a beast haunting Konohagakures's villagers.
Half a dozen people had been found, motionless, inanimate.
There had been traces of claws that had ripped their clothes apart, bite marks, alike to the ones of a medium-sized wolf, and almost all the victims' blood had been spilled.
Iruka had been lucky not to cross the monster's way so far, but there had been a witness to the last incident.
The man's shaky voice was still present in his head as the brunette rose from behind the stub and leapt up into the tree trops. He was feeling queasy all of a sudden.
„I-I still can't tell what it was, but it was heavy and strong. Attacked from behind. It had me pinned to the ground before I had even sensed its presence... and that growl....... I swear, I'm not gonna sleep for weeks."
The man had been a jounin for years and was now the only survivor of the beast's attacks.
Iruka's pace slowed down when his eyes spotted something big, though slumped flatly to the ground, that was covered in what seemed to be blood. Something smaller cowered behind a massive rock, its shivering too unsteady a movement to be unseen.
The academy instructor's legs suddenly seemed to refuse their work, his body weighed twice as much as usual.
With an effort, Iruka withstood the urge to rush in on the clearing that was now opening up in front of him.
His head kept spinning around one thought:
'Why?'
The panicking child behind the solid rock had caught Iruka's attention before, Choji seemed to be the second to worry about. Mizuki, though...
With an uncertain gaze to his left, Iruka insured himself not to be left alone in this situation, as both Izumo and Kotetsu moved in sight.
Their eyes widened in shock as they recognized the white hair that now laid sprawled on the blood-drained grass, the body's back oddly contorted.
Iruka didn't dare breathing anymore.
His eyes shot from his left to the right, pierced the seemingly peaceful green to both sides and finally locked on the motionless body several steps ahead.
It was no good to wait.
Reality would come after him, haunt him down until there was nothing left to do anymore, and all his efforts would have been in vain.
If there was still anything he could do, he was going to take the chance.
Eyes locked in place on the bent back, Iruka took a few hesitant steps forward.
He was still fearing the worst, yet still hoping for the best.
Mizuki's horror-stricken expression, frozen in place, made all his wishes vanish, all his dreams fall apart.
There was nothing left to think about when Iruka's eyes closed in on the gapeing slash that had teared Mizuki's throat open.
The man must have been long dead, no more blood was streaming out of the open wound, his body lay still and stiff.
Iruka's head seemed to lack thoughts of any kind. His mind had gone blank, clammy fingers caught hold of his heart and jerked it down to his stomach's level.
The brunette silently backed off, eyes still locked on the bloody nightmare in front of him.
Two pairs of hands firmly grasped his shoulders and kept him from running off, although Iruka would have loved to get away as quickly as possible.
His body's reaction wasn't a long time in coming.
Without saying a word, Iruka bent over. His knees met the ground right before the brunette started throwing up, once, twice.
Kotetsu's quiet encouragement was overheard, Iruka couldn't have cared less about what was happening around him.
All he could see was the open gash, gapeing where Mizuki's throat should have been and the aghast look on the man's face.
Not even Izumo's lowly muttered validation of Akimichi Choji's decent state thrilled Iruka's mind anymore.
It was probably the first time ever that the academy teacher by heart didn't care for a child's condition at all.
Iruka had no idea how he had gotten home at all.
Judging from the scent of lime and bergamot that surrounded him when he first opened his eyes again, there must have been someone to clean up the mess he had made of himself.
Izumo, possibly.
Kotetsu, rather.
Both of them, most likely.
Iruka couldn't have cared less.
He felt adrift, lethargic.
Wearily, he set one naked foot out of bed and onto the thick off-white carpet that covered most of his bedroom's wooden floor, the second leg followed after what seemed like minutes.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
One hand unconsciously messed the already frizzy hair up while Iruka slowly got to his feet.
He ignored the drawn curtains, didn't care for the lack of light in his room.
It must be dark anyway.
Setting one foot in front of the other without realizing where he was going, Iruka made his way to the kitchen.
Warming sunlight filled the small room, found its way through the large window and lightly tickled Iruka's nose. Daylight?
One short look onto the clock that was embedded into one of the wall cupboards before the brunette shook his head in mild irritation.
Quarter to six.
No reasonably healthy person would have overslept the afternoon.
He, indeed, happened to find himself just awakened.
Still clueless as to what he was supposed to do next, Iruka scuffled back into his bedroom, silently scowling at the long curtains before he crossed the room with few long strides and drew them aside.
Intolerable brightness was let in.
Iruka blinked in annoyance, but he didn't move aside.
Punishment seemed fairly appropriate to him.
Mizuki was dead, ripped apart by a ferocious monster.
He was here, still alive.
He had been spared, while others had died.
People who had been precious to him.
People who he would have risked his life for.
Again.
It took the brunette a short moment to realize that he was crying, and both dazzling sunlight and tears were tingling over his face. Gently, single tears trickled down Iruka's cheeks and along his jaw, fell from his chin and made their way over his bare chest.
The man didn't move.
Loss and grief were omnipresent now, life seemed worthless for a short period of time.
Iruka's fingers violently clutched the edge of his shorts, his finger nails pierced the delicate skin of his thigh.
He didn't even wince.
It was only when he started shaking violently, that Iruka finally broke down.
And it was only then when the man realized that he was being watched.
An unexpected hiss came from a nearby tree top, making the sobbing brunette raise his eyes to the window's level to peek over the top of the window sill.
Suddenly aware, Iruka got to his feet, his body pressed flatly to the wall, spying over to the thicket extending all along the chuunins' apartment blocks.
A flock of doves rose into the air, breaking through the obscure green. Angered chatter accompanied their way.
For a moment, Iruka had been frozen in place, but when tears started streaming down his face again, he drew the curtains close.
Light was not what he needed now.
He didn't notice the shadow in front of his window, smoothly leaping off through the tree tops.
